Alright, let us continue The Papi Chulo RADIO Road to Infinity War (RTIW for short) review event with the fifteenth movie in the lineup, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

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With the first Guardians being a huge success, you know Marvel had to make a sequel. Now, the guardians are back for another adventure full of action, humour and a rockin soundtrack. Does the sequel live up to the hype or does it crash and burn?

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Before we get into it, it should be said that there will be spoilers if you haven’t seen it yet (Although since it came out last year, you should have seen it already).

The story begins with a flashback to 1980 where we see Ego (Kurt Russel), is driving along with his new love Meredith Quill (Laura Haddock). They crusin along the countryside when they make a stop at a DQ to go out to the forest so that Ego can show Meredith a plant he planted that he promises will grow into something beautiful one day. Flashforward to the present where we see the Guardians on the planet Sovereign. They are on a mission to stop a big monster who plants to drain their batteries. The Guardians engage the monster while Baby Groot turns on the tunes and dances his cares away. The Guardians slay the beast and collect their reward, Nebula (Karen Gillian). Rocket (Bradley Cooper), steals some of their smaller batteries when no one is looking and this later comes back to bite the Guardians in the butt. Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki), and the Sovereign soon figure out they stole some batteries and they send their fleet to kill the Guardians. When all seems lost, a mysterious ship comes and destroys all the Sovereign ships. The Guardians soon crash land on a remote planet where the same ship that helped them earlier also lands with them. We soon find out that on that ship is Mantis (Pom Klementieff), and Ego who claims to be Peter’s real father.

We then cut to Contraxia where Yondu (Michael Rooker) and his Ravagers are relaxing at a hotel/brothel. A bunch of other Ravagers come to the same place but then leave in disgust once they find out Yondu is there because Yondu betrayed them and broke the Ravager code when he took in Peter as a young boy. Later, some of Yondu’s crew talk bad mouth Yondu and this plants the seeds for a mutiny. However, The Sovereign come and request to speak to Yondu about a job. We then cut back to the planet Ego and the Guardians are on and they talk to Ego about who he is and where he is from. Peter (Chris Pratt), still in shock about Ego being his father still doesn’t believe him. Ego offers to take some of the Guardians to his home planet to show Peter his origins. While they leave, Rocket, Groot (Vin Diesel), and Nebula stay behind with the broken ship so they can try to repair it. Later on in the night, the Ravagers find Rocket and crew and try to ambush him, Rocket sets up a bunch of traps to stop them but Rocket get’s captured in the end. It’s here that the Mutiny finally happens when Taserface (Chris Sullivan), shoots off Yondu’s fin and becomes the new leader of the Ravagers. They put Rocket and Yondu in their holding cells, Nebula joins the New Ravagers and they also take Baby Groot.

Meanwhile, Ego and Mantis take Peter, Drax (Dave Bautista), and Gamora (Zoe Saldana) to his home planet which we find out is actually Ego and his Human form is an extension of himself. He goes into detail about how he is a celestial and that his mission was to create life on other planets to help extend his life. We cut back to the New Ravagers where Nebula is given a ship and Baby Groot is being used for entertainment. When Baby Groot is walking around, he stumbles upon Rocket and Yondu and he agrees to help them back Yondu’s Prototype fin in order to control his Arrow and escape. After many failed attempts, Kraglin (Sean Gunn), finally helps Baby Groot get the Fin to Yondu because Kraglin is still loyal to Yondu. Once Yondu puts on the fin, they all escape and manage to get an escape ship before blowing up Taserfaces ship. Before Taserface dies in the explosion, he contacts the Sovereign and gives them the coordinates to where Yondu is headed so they can kill all of the Guardians at once.

Back on Ego’s planet, Gamora is frustrated with Peter because she believes there is more than meets the eye and walks off to blow off some steam from fighting with Peter. While out in the field, Gamora is ambushed by Nebula with her ship. This leads to a chase and fight scene where the sisters finally have it out and share their feelings with each other. While in a cave, they discover something evil, a bunch of Skeletons of Ego’s other children. This is where we finally learn Ego’s true intentions. Ego plant himself on every planet so he can control everyone and everything. He wants Peter to help rule by his side, but after once Peter learns that Ego put the Tumor in his Mother, he refuses and starts to fight his father. This leads to all of the Guardians coming together and coming up with a plan to kill Ego. Rocket builds a bomb using the batteries he stole and get’s Baby Groot to plan it at the centre of the planet (AKA Ego’s Brain). The Guardians try their best to fight Ego while also fighting off the Sovereign who track them down and they destroy the Sovereign ships and get back to the task at hand, destroying Ego. The bomb finally goes off and all the Guardians make it out except for Peter and Yondu. Yondu is able to rescue Peter but pays the ultimate sacrifice when Yondu rockets Peter out to space and gives his air shield to Peter so that Peter can live. This hurts Peter and everyone mourns for Yondu, even the Ravagers who banished Yondu honour his sacrifice in the end.

The acting in this movie is on par with the first Guardians. You can tell that everyone has a formula down and the cast does an amazing job. Except for Taserface and the Sovereign. The Sovereign seem like they are going to become a huge pain for the Guardians but, they come off as bland and one dimensional (I don’t know if this was intentional or not but I’m making a note of it anyway).

The CGI is, of course, your standard MCU budget now. However, you can tell a lot more work and love was put into the effects in this movie. The scene where Yondu, Rocket and Kraglin make the jump to Ego is hilarious and is a highlight of the CGI. Also, all the ships, battles and even Ego himself are amazing. Another shoutout goes to the de-aging of Kurt Russel. Marvel really does know how to make actors look young again and it is impressive to see.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 isn’t better than the first one. However, this isn’t a bad thing, most movie sequels try and top the original one. Vol. 2 instead just tries to stick to the formula of the first one and tell a more personal story then a universe exploding one which is one the movie’s strengths. Everyone wanted to know who Peter’s father was and this is the story of Peter’s father and how Peter deals with that revelation.

The Verdict:

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 doesn’t try to top its first movie. It instead decides to answer the question of who is Peter’s dad? The movie succeeds in giving us more Guardians and a very personal story about Family and Fathers. The movie does suffer from killing off both of the main villains again (But who will really remember Taserface anyways?), the parts with Ego do tend to drag on a little bit and Mantis doesn’t get much development before she joins the team. However, if you can look past those flaws, you will find another awesome mix of an adventure with the freaking Guardians of the Galaxy.

8.5/10

Next up, After making his debut in Civil War and winning over audiences everywhere, it’s time for the webhead to get his own solo movie in the MCU, Spider-Man: Homecoming.